Opera Unite

Many of my regular visitors will already know that I work for Opera Software, though I don’t often post about anything that goes on at work. But last week Opera launched something so cool that I just had to blog about it. Opera Unite is a new web technology that lets you use your computer as a server via the Opera web browser.

On the day we launched Unite was one of the most talked-about topics on Twitter, right behind the situation in Iran.

At this moment Opera Unite has six services you can install and run, although there will inevitably be more to come. The current ones are:

• The Fridge – like a pin board where people can leave you sticky notes
• File Sharing – you can nominate a folder or set of folders on your computer that you want people to be able to browse and view
• Media Player – this is my favourite feature; you can nominate a folder on your computer that contains music, and your friends can search your music collection and stream your music live from your computer
• Photo Sharing – same deal as the media player and file sharing above, only this time with photos
• The Lounge – your very own invite-only chat room
• Web server – here you can host your own static web pages

For those of you not familiar with how web servers work, there are lots of articles online you can read if you’re interested in details, but in very simple terms, when you type a URL into your browser, such as www.google.com for example, your browser sends a request to the Google server and the Google server responds by sending the Google search page back to your browser.

If you don’t know what a browser is… I could say something snide here, but I shall restrain myself… it is the program through which you view web pages. You might use Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome or (hopefully) Opera.

But back to the main topic… Opera Unite. What Opera Unite does is it allows your computer to act like a server so that when you send your Opera Unite URL to a friend, they can go to one of your Unite service pages and see content that is already sitting on your computer.  You don’t have to upload your music, photos or files anywhere, because your friend’s computer is requesting the content straight from your computer.

The first reaction is usually a look of shock and horror at the idea of someone being able to access personal computers. “WHAT?!” I can almost hear you thinking, “people will be able to ACCESS MY COMPUTER!?” But before you freak out at the idea, I can assure you that it is secure. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• you choose the files and services you want to share
• you can password protect them and only give out the password to those you want to share your files
• the services go offline as soon as you close your browser
• visitors have no access to anything else in your computer

If you’re interested in learning more about Opera Unite, take a look at the website here: http://unite.opera.com/

Unite will come packaged with the new Opera 10 release, which is due  soon (you can already download the beta release), but you can also download a patch for the latest stable Opera version (Opera 9.64) here: http://labs.opera.com/news/2009/06/16/  You will need to install Opera 9.64 first.

To demonstrate what I’m talking about, feel free to take a look at my fridge, and leave a note if you wish:

http://zopera.zoeselina.operaunite.com/fridge/

If the Fridge is offline, it means that my browser is closed, but check back whenever you like. Remember, you don’t need to have Opera installed to view Unite pages, only if you want to run Unite services yourself.

If you’d like access to my music collection, please contact me and I’ll send you the private URL.

Enjoy!